§ 39. Mr. Wadeasked the Minister of Transport what considerations, apart from the number of people regularly crossing a road, are taken into account when authorising the making of a pedestrian crossing.
§ Mr. HayThe site should be one at which pedestrians normally cross. It should be easily visible to a driver and not too near another crossing or stopping place. The number of pedestrians should be sufficient to ensure that the crossing is in fairly constant use. Vehicular traffic should be considerable and persistent.
§ Mr. WadeWhile I appreciate that there may be objections to an excess of pedestrian crossings, might I ask the hon. Gentleman whether he would agree that in various towns and villages there are a number of places where crossing the road is a very dangerous adventure and there is no nearby pedestrian crossing? May we have an assurance that in those circumstances authorisation would not be refused merely because statistics did not show a sufficient number already crossing or attempting to cross?
§ Mr. HayCrossing the road is, I am afraid, a fairly hazardous business almost everywhere in the country with the very high traffic volumes that we have, but we have to be extremely careful not to have a multiplicity of 1392 pedestrian crossings. There is no doubt that if we have too many—this has been our experience in the past—they are just not observed by drivers.